Introduction: Mental rotation (MR) of body parts relies not only on visuospatial processing but also on motor imagery mechanisms involving premotor cortical areas. Therefore, impairment in MR tasks may reflect both cognitive and motor dysfunction. We studied whether there is an impairment in reaction time and response accuracy rate of foot mental rotation (FMR), Paced Auditory Serial Addition (PASAT) score and walking time in individuals with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The study also examined potential links between walking duratioN, FMR, and PASAT accuracy.
Methods: Basic procedures: 37 RRMS patients and 40 healthy subjects performed FMR tasks, Physical activity and auditory information processing were assessed by Timed25-Foot Walk (T25-FW) and PASAT tests.
Results: The average reaction time to stimuli of both legs and walking time in the RRMS group significantly increased compared with control group. The mean PASAT score of control group was significantly higher than the RRMS. There was no notable correlation between walking time and response accuracy rate in FMR task. Meanwhile there was a negative correlation between walking time and the number of correct responses in PASAT and positive correlation between walking time and reaction time in FMR.
Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that RRMS patients exhibit significant impairments in both motor and cognitive performance compared with healthy subjects. These findings suggest that RRMS affects not only motor functions but also cognitive-motor integration processes such as MR. These findings suggest that rehabilitation especially a combination of motor imagery exercises and physical therapy may help walking improvement in RRMS.